The Department of Education closed the clearinghouses on Dec. 19 as
part of an effort to revamp, streamline, and centralize the electronic
library system, called the Educational Resources Information Center, or
ERIC. The 38- year-old system archives more than a million reports,
studies, hearing transcripts, and other pieces of education-related
information.

The clearinghouses, most of them set on university campuses,
specialized in subjects ranging from assessment to vocational
education. Their staff experts fielded information requests from
educators and policymakers, synthesizing research into policy briefs,
digests, and reader-friendly reports, and, in some cases, offering
personalized question-and-answer services.

But Education Department officials, in a decision that generated
controversy last spring, said the far-flung system had become creaky
and inefficient. ("Plans to
Alter ERIC Set Off Alarms," May 28, 2003).

By the end of this month, they hope to name a contractor who will
replace the old system with a more centralized one that operates like
popular commercial Web-search engines such as Yahoo or Google.

Late last month, notices reading, "This Web site is no longer
available" quietly popped up on the former Web sites of all 16
clearinghouses.

During the transition, users can still get the documents in the ERIC
system through its central online database at http://www.eric.ed.gov. In addition, most
of the clearinghouses have moved their electronic archives to new
electronic homes where users can continue to access them—in some
cases, at less cost.

The new system, when it's up and running later this year, is not
expected to include all of the offerings that the clearinghouses
produce now.

"Our users can go on our Web site and download the full texts
online," said Philip K. Piele, the director of the Clearinghouse on
Educational Policy and Management at the University of Oregon in
Eugene, which is the new incarnation of the former ERIC Clearinghouse
on Educational Management.

"If you're looking for a full text on ERIC, you may have to pay a
fee for it," said Mr. Piele, who also directed the former ERIC
clearinghouse.

Going From Here

Because the University of Oregon's education school agreed to
support a stripped-down version of the former clearinghouse while its
directors look for other funding sources, the educational management
clearinghouse's transition has been relatively smooth. Other
clearinghouses have divided their information collections among several
hosts; some shut them down altogether.

The federal Education Department had originally planned to award the
contract for the new ERIC system in October. According to Grover J.
"Russ" Whitehurst, the director of the department's Institute of
Education Sciences, which oversees ERIC, the delay will likely set back
the new system's startup by a month.

"It has turned out to be a complex procurement, and everybody's
taking great care to make sure the final decision is defensible in
every way," he said.

Some longtime ERIC users worry that the holdup could mean a gap in
knowledge because the ERIC system, which has a four- to six- month
backlog of documents, is accepting no new materials during the
transition.

"They seem to think they'll just pick up, and there'll be no major
gaps," said Kate Corby, a librarian specializing in education and
psychology at Michigan State University in East Lansing. "It sounds
like pie in the sky to me."

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